Thursday, 22 October 2009

Another US ' White Racist ' Rape (Not)

According to U.S. Justice Department figures over 34,460 White women are sexually assaulted or raped by Black males each year, and most authorities believe that the actual rape figures are at least twice the reported number. The number of Black female rapes by White Men is Statistically, 0! Because they have fewer than 10 cases nationally.

In just one year the number of White women raped by Black males is 6 times the total number of all lynchings during the entire history of the United States. (Estimated to be about 5,000 including both Whites and Blacks) Many scholars who have studied the history of lynching in the United States make it clear that lynching wasn’t simply a racial crime, but one primarily exacted on criminals whether they were Black or White.

A young black woman who claimed she was kidnapped, raped and tortured by seven white people in a racial attack that shocked America has now said she made it all up.

By Tom Leonard in New YorkPublished: 5:55PM BST 22 Oct 2009

Megan Williams had claimed her captors – who included her boyfriend – beat her, forced her to drink urine and eat rat droppings, hurled racial abuse and poured hot wax over her while holding her hostage in a mobile home in rural West Virginia.

The fictional horrific ordeal in September 2007 drew condemnation and financial contributions from American black leaders including Al Sharpton and even a march on her behalf.

But the 22-year-old's decision on Wednesday to recant the entire story, saying through her lawyer that she invented it to get revenge on her boyfriend, is particularly strange given that her alleged attackers actually admitted the crimes.

All but one of the seven, including Bobby Brewster, her then-boyfriend, are in jail after pleading guilty to charges including kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and giving false information to police.

As Miss Williams's former supporters distanced themselves from her, the prosecutor in the case challenged her retraction, insisting that the seven were found guilty on the basis of evidence other than her testimony.

Police discovered Miss Williams, whose mother has described her as "slow", in a backwoods caravan in Big Creek, Logan County, after receiving an anonymous tip-off. A passer-by reportedly heard cries from a shed where she was being kept.

Miss Williams said she had been held there for days during which time she had been stabbed, burned and forced to drink from a lavatory.

Some minority rights campaigners rushed to support her, with the Rev Sharpton and Black Lawyers for Justice urging prosecutors to pursue hate-crime charges.

Rev Sharpton, who gave $1,000 (£603) to the Williams family as a Christmas present, has now asked a prosecutor to vindicate anyone wrongfully convicted.

Byron Potts, Miss Williams's lawyer, said she invented her ordeal because Brewster had beaten her. She had recanted "her entire story" because she "can't continue to live this lie", he said.

He said Brewster had been responsible for the bruises on her face but all the other injuries, including razor cuts, were self-inflicted.

Mr Potts said she had received death threats in recent days and was scared.

But Brian Abraham, the prosecutor in the original case, dismissed her admission as "absurd".

He said that police had soon realised her testimony was unreliable and had relied instead on "pretty overwhelming" physical evidence and the suspects' own statements.

Miss Williams gave an interview in January in which she claimed her late mother had made her embellish her story to get more publicity and money.